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Pathogenomics of Streptococcus ilei sp. nov., a newly identified pathogen ubiquitous in human microbiome

  • Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Microbe Interaction
  • Published:
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Abstract

Viridans group streptococci are a serious health concern because most of these bacteria cause life-threatening infections, especially in immunocompromised and hospitalized individuals. We focused on two alpha-hemolytic Streptococcus strains (I-G2 and I-P16) newly isolated from an ileostomy effluent of a colorectal cancer patient. We examined their pathogenic potential by investigating their prevalence in human and assessing their pathogenicity in a mouse model. We also predicted their virulence factors and pathogenic features by using comparative genomic analysis and in vitro tests. Using polyphasic and systematic approaches, we identified the isolates as belonging to a novel Streptococcus species and designated it as Streptococcus ilei. Metagenomic survey based on taxonomic assignment of datasets from the Human Microbiome Project revealed that S. ilei is present in most human population and at various body sites but is especially abundant in the oral cavity. Intraperitoneal injection of S. ilei was lethal to otherwise healthy C57BL/6J mice. Pathogenomics and in vitro assays revealed that S. ilei possesses a unique set of virulence factors. In agreement with the in vivo and in vitro data, which indicated that S. ilei strain I-G2 is more pathogenic than strain I-P16, only the former displayed the streptococcal group A antigen. We here newly identified S. ilei sp. nov., and described its prevalence in human, virulence factors, and pathogenicity. This will help to prevent S. ilei strain misidentification in the future, and improve the understanding and management of streptococcal infections.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Aharon Oren (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) for etymological advice. We thank Dr. Sang Sun Yoon and Dr. Junhyeok Go for technical advice of in vitro cell line experiments. This work was supported by grants from the Mid-career Researcher Program (NRF-2020R1A2-C3012797) and Science Research Centre grant (NRF-2018R-1A5A1025077) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2019R1A6A3A-01096031) funded by the Ministry of Education through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea

    Dong-Wook Hyun, Jae-Yun Lee, Min-Soo Kim, Na-Ri Shin, Tae Woong Whon, Pil Soo Kim, Euon Jung Tak, Mi-Ja Jung, June Young Lee, Hyun Sik Kim, Woorim Kang, Hojun Sung & Jin-Woo Bae

  2. Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Republic of Korea

    Kyung Hyun Kim & Che Ok Jeon

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  1. Dong-Wook Hyun
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Correspondence to Jin-Woo Bae.

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The study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Kyung Hee University (Permit number: KHP-2014-02-4) and complied with guidelines of the Committee. All animal experiments were approved by and performed in accordance with the guidelines of the committee for the care and use of laboratory animals of the College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University (KHP-2014-02-1-4).

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Hyun, DW., Lee, JY., Kim, MS. et al. Pathogenomics of Streptococcus ilei sp. nov., a newly identified pathogen ubiquitous in human microbiome. J Microbiol. 59, 792–806 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-021-1165-x

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